Condition-adaptable colored fishing net

ABSTRACT

A condition-adaptable fishing net designed to catch more fish. The fishing net includes a single, large panel of netting having a main, light color capable of blending in water under certain water and lighting conditions. Disposed randomly over the panel of netting are a plurality of various sizes and shapes of colored areas, each having a color selected from a group of colors, all capable of blending in water under different water and lighting conditions. By randomly creating different colored areas over the net panel, what fish will believe to be holes or barrier free areas, appear randomly in the panel of netting. During use, the different colored shapes randomly appear as holes or barrier free areas in the panel of netting through which the fish then attempt to swim, thus becoming entangled in the net.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to fishing nets and, more particularly, tocolored fishing nets capable of adapting to fishing conditions toimprove their fish catching ability.

2. Description of the Related Art

Colored nets are commonly used in the fishing industry. Such nets areconstructed by sewing different colored net panels together or by dyeingsections of a large net different colors to create sections of net moreor less visible in water. Typically, these colored net panels orsections are aligned in alternating horizontal or vertical rows.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,160 discloses a fishing net withmultiple, alternating, horizontally aligned rows of netting dyed invisible and invisible colors. The inventor postulates that when fishswim next to a section of netting dyed a visible color, they swim awayfrom it and towards an adjacent section of netting dyed an invisiblecolor and becoming entrapped. One drawback of this theory is itmistakenly assumes that fish swim in a direction perpendicular to thelongitudinal axis of the dyed sections. While more fish may be entrappedin the invisible color section of netting, such nets are stillrelatively inefficient because most fish, when seeing the visiblesection, swim away in a random direction thus avoiding the netaltogether.

Years of experience with colored nets have shown that many fish candetect a colored net and will swim along the inside surface looking foran edge or hole to swim through. If an area of net appears to be a holeor edge, the fish will quickly attempt to swim through it and becomeentangled.

It is also known that the turbidity of the water, the light conditions,and the depth of the water are important factors which affect the fish'svisibility of the net. Since each of these factors can change suddenly,the efficiently of single color or multiple row colored net can change.

What is needed is a fishing net which is more efficient than typicalcolored nets and which is adaptable to all fishing conditions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide a more efficient coloredfishing net.

It is another object of the invention to provide a fishing net withrandomly disposed, multiple shaped and multiple colored areas designedto create what appear to fish to be holes or barrier-free areas and thusimproving the net's fish capturing ability.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such a fishing netthat is better suited for the random swimming patterns of fish.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a fishing netadaptable to different fishing conditions.

These and other objects are met by providing a fishing net that is moreefficient than typical colored fishing nets at catching fish. Thefishing net hereinafter called a mottled fishing net, includes a single,large net panel being a color capable of blending in water under typicalwater and lighting conditions. Created randomly on the net panel are aplurality of different size and shape colored areas, each being a colorselected from a group of different colors, all capable of blending inwater under certain water and lighting conditions. By randomly creatingdifferent colored areas on the net panel, what fish will believe to beholes or barrier-free areas are created across the entire net panelunder all fishing conditions, so that the overall efficiency of the netis substantially improved over typical colored nets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

Shown in the accompanying FIGURE, there is shown a mottled fishing net,generally referred to as 10, comprising a net panel 12 capable of beingused for fishing, the net panel 12 having a main color 11 capable ofblending in water. The top edge of the net panel 12 is attached to afloat line 14 with spaced-apart stringers 16. The bottom edge of the netpanel 12 is attached to a lead line 18 with spaced-apart stringers 16which extend and stabilize the net 10 in a substantially verticalorientation in water.

The net panel 12 can vary between 50 to 1,800 feet in length and varybetween 5 to 125 feet in width when deployed. The size of the meshopenings in the net panel 12 are established by local fishingregulations.

Randomly disposed across the entire length and width of the net panel 12are a plurality of different colored areas 20. The areas 20 have variousshapes and sizes. The areas 20 have a color randomly selected from agroup of colors all capable of blending in water and opening as a hole20 to fish under different water and lighting conditions. Neither thenet panel 12 not the areas 20 have a color intended to be visible inwater.

In the preferred embodiment, the net panel 12 is made of nylon or othersynthetic fish netting. Typically, the net panel 12 is off-white incolor. In the preferred embodiment, the areas 20 are between 2 to 20feet in width and 20 to 150 feet in length and dyed various colorsselected from a group of colors listed in Table 1. The colors listed inTable 1 have been shown to blend and be invisible in water duringvarying fishing conditions. It should be understood that the color ofthe areas could be blends of the colors listed in Table I.

By randomly disposing the color areas 20 over the entire net panel 12,the fish entangling properties of the net panel 12 are substantiallyimproved since fish typically swim in random directions along side thefishing net. By randomly assigning different colors to the areas 20, thevisibility of the areas 20 of the net panel 12 changes according to thefishing conditions thereby improving the fish entrapping efficiency ofthe net 10.

In compliance with the statute, the invention, described herein, hasbeen described in language more or less specific as to structuralfeatures. It should be understood, however, the invention is not limitedto the specific features shown, since the means and construction showncomprised only the preferred embodiments for putting the invention intoeffect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms ormodifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the amendedclaims, appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine ofequivalents.

                  TABLE I                                                         ______________________________________                                        green   light blue    brown   light green                                     aqua    tan           blue    gray                                            ______________________________________                                    

I claim:
 1. A condition-adaptable fishing net, comprisinga. A net panelcapable of being used for fishing, said net panel having a main colorcapable of blending in water; and, b. A plurality of randomly disposed,different colored areas with respect to said main color created on saidnet panel, said colored areas having a color selected from a group ofcolors all capable of blending in water under different water andlighting conditions.
 2. A fishing net, as described in claim 1, whereinthe group of colors include green, light green, blue, light blue, aqua,gray, brown and grey.
 3. A fishing net, as described in claim 1, furtherincluding a float line attached to said net panel.
 4. A fishing net, asrecited in claim 3, further including a lead line attached to said netpanel.
 5. A fishing net, as recited in claim 1, wherein said net panelis made of nylon.
 6. A fishing net, as recited in claim 1, wherein saidareas are between 2 to 20 feet in width and 20 to 150 feet in length. 7.A fishing net, as recited in claim 6, wherein said areas are dyed onsaid net panel.